Benefits of Using CAT Tools for Human Translation

Computer Assisted Translation, commonly abbreviated as CAT in the translation sector has now become an increasingly popular tool. CAT tools can be beneficial in many ways for the translations but, there have been several conflicts arising over its usage within the industry. Many professionals have been refusing to use this technology for translation purposes, although it has proven to be very efficient.

CAT tools were basically made for making the translation process easier and less tedious for the users. The tools used in CAT help in setting up and building translation memory banks that do the translation process more effectively. One of the greatest advantages of using CAT tools for translation is that, it eliminates manual work and thus, is less time consuming and also cheap relatively.

Are CAT tools effective for all types of translation projects? Can these tools overpower human effort and creativity?

Below are some of the major benefits of using CAT tools for human translation.

Proofreading

Proofreading can seem like quite a task! Manually scanning through the documents and spotting errors is certainly a hectic task. CAT tools are designed in such a way that it can automatically scan the document and recognize the typos, grammatical errors, incorrect punctuations and mistranslated words or numbers on its own. Humans are bound to err despite of their level of proficiency. Even a minor error can sometimes lead to disqualifications. Thus, CAT resolves this issue quite efficiently.

Consistency

Maintaining consistency is one of the hardest parts of human translation, more so when it comes to a lengthy document. When there are repetitive phrases and texts that are also technical in nature, CAT tools can perform faster and more consistent translations. It also saves the user from a lot of typing work. Instead, one can just make necessary edits and changes wherever required.

Format Retaining

The CAT tool perfectly does the job of retaining the original layout of the text which otherwise is a pretty cumbersome thing on its own. This tool eliminates the process of manually changing the fonts, indents, paragraph breaking, header and footer placements and so on. The CAT system assembles the segments together just as it was before, and the translator can just focus on the real words and not on the format or placement of words.

Excellent Results in Less Time

When it comes to International translation services, there can be a demand for high quality results in a very short span of time. As the translator gets accustomed to using the software for translation projects, words and phrases get saved in the memory banks. Hence, translations that are similar in nature can be completed successfully without investing much of time. This leads to increased productivity on part of the translator.

Cost Reduction

As we mentioned earlier, the memory bank saves most of the repeated phrases and content. Fuzzy matches and repeated words are saved in the translation memory which helps if a similar segment has earlier been translated, so that it can be used exactly as it is. Making use of previous translations can not only save time but also save costs, especially in the case of repeated clients. Companies can save costs when they want to make some additions or changes here and there in their brochure or document. They only need to pay for the new changes to be made to an existing document, as the translation agency will make use of the memory bank to retain the same content.

In the modern age, everything is digitalized and hence, people are looking for instantaneous results.

What else does CAT tools facilitates?
It also provides auto back-ups of the work which gives us an assurance of never losing a work assignment. Therefore, CAT tools are extremely effective when it comes to translation work.